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Monday, January 6, 2014

Calendly: An Easy Scheduling Addition to Google Calendar

I am an Instructional Technology Coach in my district. This means that help teachers use technology (and the 2700 devices we now have) within their classrooms. I help teachers out during their planning time, before school, after school, or whenever they can fit me in their schedules. My days are extremely busy and involve a lot of running around the 2 main buildings I am assigned (K-2 and 3-5) as well as helping in the 3 other buildings (another elementary, Middle School, and High School) in the district when needed. We have about 185 teachers in the district so you can image that scheduling me can be difficult! I found a great way to help me help them. Instead of having all the crazy emails and phone calls trying to find times to schedule appointments to help, they pick time slots that are available through a great online service called Calendly. Here is how it works:

Teachers click a link that I set up and choose the duration they need me (15, 30, or 60 minute sessions).

They Choose the Date that they can meet with me.

The choose the time period they have available (and only those that are available show up for them to choose from. This is connected through my Google Calendar so any of my events I have made automatically close those blocks of time form anyone scheduling).

They will get an email confirming this appointment as well as a reminder a day before the session. They (or I) can cancel and reschedule if needed). In addition, after scheduling the session they have the option to have it added to their Google Calendar as well.

Here is how it looks from "my side":

Here is what the "calendar" feature looks like. The events are also automatically imported into your Google Calendar.

Here are the different "sessions" I set up for teachers to choose from.

You can select any calendars you have to block times in Calendly.

This service eliminates the back and forth emails/call, allows teacher to pick the best time for them, and puts set events right into my Google Calendar so my phone and iPad reminders let me know when I need to be somewhere. This has been a great time saver for me and every teacher who has used it has loved it. Check it out and give it a shot if you are someone who needs to schedule events with others on a daily basis!